Sunday, April 29, 2012

I'm curled up in bed, and it's 8:00 on a Sunday morning. Daylight Savings Time just went into effect here in Chile. Why is the changing of clocks so late here and not coordinated with the States? Apparently after the big earthquake in 2010 the country was concerned with it being dark late at night and also with saving power, hence them extending it each year. (Try telling that to your laptop, Iphone, Kindle Fire, or any other piece of technological equipment, however, and you will stubbornly told that you're wrong each time you try to change it to the correct time) When you thing of falling back you usually associate it with it being darker when you wake up, but with the inverted seasons it is now lighter in the mornings leading into winter.

And yes, I said winter. After teasing us with days getting up to 75 and even 80 well into mid April, winter is on its way. The days are starting to get cool, and sleeping at night is starting to get a bit nippy. We also had the first heavy rainfall of the season on Friday. Luckily I had my umbrella with me, but I was one of the unlucky pedestrians soaked by passing cars splashing huge puddles of water onto the sidewalk.

As much as I don't like it, I'm used to winter here. A few weeks ago I put my fan away and began to pull out my sweaters and put away my tank tops. Yesterday I changed my regular bedsheets over to the flannel sheets I brought from home, and soon enough I'll change out my regular comforter for the down one I brought from home. And I'll also have my space heater to use to help keep me warm. I'm not looking forward to the 30 and 40 degree temperatures for sleeping, wearing of multiple layers of clothing, and commuting in the cold weather, but like I said I'm used to it from my past 2 winters here.

One of my friends was asking me what my apartment looks like, and it occurred to me that I never really posted many pictures after moving in and furnishing it. So here are some pictures!

My bedroom The white sheets hanging out of the side are from my overflowing and neglected laundry basket.

View from my bedroom into the living room area. I have 2 big closets as you can see.

View of my bedroom from the bathroom

My kitchen! Just below this picture is the table.

Here's the living room area. I love my couch and 2 Ottomans with storage inside.

I also love my entertainment center with the TV, Wii, and music system.

The view of the Andes from my apartment

Another view from my apartment

And what would a blog post be without a mention of protests? This latest one occurred on a Wednesday, which was an usual departure from the usual Thursday protests. The high school students are now taking change of the protests, as they're realizing that the current system isn't in their best interests for having access to higher education. Unfortunately I feel that some of them truly believe that and want to protest, while many others jump on the bandwagon in order to get out of school.

I was luckily able to avoid this protest too. It started at 11 in the morning in Plaza Italia (where most mayhem in Santiago starts), which is about 3 metro stops from the office and most of my classes. This protest didn't march down the main street all of the way, but rather took a route further north up to the Plaza de Armas (a main square in Santiago). I got to my lunch class without incident, and while at a Starbucks between classes I saw one of my former students, and he advised me to not go up a few of the side streets because of tear gas and the police. I was able to take another side street to get up to the bus stop I needed and made it out of downtown without incident.

A coworker sent me an article and video he found on BBC about this most current protest:

There's not much else newsworthy going on here. Now that you readers up in the Northern Hemisphere got to be jealous of my summer pictures during your winter, I now get to me jealous of your summer pictures during my winter here. Until next time!